When Tragedy First Found Them
by MPeters2
Summary: Before Stanford, before Meadow's possesion, before Dean and Sam's unconventional meeting with Michelle, there was a traffic jam, and a car crash, and the Peters, whose lives were changed forever. And John Winchester was witness to it all.


The traffic is absolutely stand still. John Winchester does not have patience for this. He lays the horn on for about four seconds. The driver of the car in front of him turns around and glares. He glares back. He's been sitting in this same spot for about ten minutes, altogether he's been stuck in traffic for about an hour. John Winchester does not have time for this, he has two sons waiting in a motel room for him. One of them is eight, the other is five. The car ahead of him starts to move. John sighs in relief as the traffic finally starts to break up. Finally, he thinks, but by the time he's reached the end of the street the light has turned red. John groans again. A red Honda pulls up besides him. John turns slightly to glance at it. The back windows are rolled down and a little girl is peeking out one at him. Her wispy brown hair is pulled into two tiny pigtails on either side of her head. Chocolate is smeared across her chubby cheeks and smiling lips. John's eyes soften young girl lifts her tiny, chubby hand and waves at him. He smiles slightly and waves back.

"Meadow!" he hears a male voice roar. "If you get a speck of chocolate on the seats I'll knock you into next week are we clear!?"

"She won't," a little girl's voice answers.

"Gosh Steve why do you have to be such a jerk?" a woman's voice demands.

"Shut up!" the man yells.

The light turns to green and the car races away.

John shakes his head, wincing in sympathy for the little girl and then drivers away.

After that, for a while everything is quiet, normal. The light fades from the sky yet no stars appear. The lights of the city must be too bright. John drives past a small white church. The small crosses dotted around the lawn causes the breath to catch in his throat. A image of his beautiful wife flashes across his mind. He blinks away tears and his eyes harden. Sometimes he hates life. Life is horrible, bitter, cold and unfair. Nothing wonderful every happens and love is a lie. The car in front of his stops dead. John peers above the roof of the car and groans in annoyance. He's stuck in traffic again. This time it's different though, John can see red and blue lights flashing ahead of him. People are climbing out of their cars, walking slowly to where the lights draw them like moths. John growls again as he climbs out of his car, if it's that danged werewolf again he's going to spontaneously combust.

The wind is bitingly cold and John turns his coat collar up against it, it howls errily making John shiver. He moves slowly to where the people have gathered and the flickering lights are the brightest. He carefully pushes his way to the front and the breath is knocked out of him.

Just ahead a red Honda lays on it's back, side crushed where a black Suburban smashed into it. John watches in horror as the rescue workers pull out the limp body of a fairly young woman. One of the doctors shakes his head sadly and another starts to load her into a body bag. They carry it to a car and load it inside. Rescuers help a young girl, no more than four or five out of the totaled car. Her legs are shaking and there's a large gash on her forehead but other than that she appears to be relatively unscathed. Then the workers pull out the limp body of a little girl, no more than two, with chocolate smeared across her cheeks.

John's heart almost stops.

Rescuers lay her onto the ground. The press fingers into her neck and listen to her heartbeat. A woman becomes another rescuer over. They start shouting out medical terms.

A tiny, chubby, lifeless upturned hand lays on the ground, a rosary clenched in the fingers. John's gaze zero's in on that hand.

"We've lost the pulse!" a nurse yells, then, if things were moving quickly before, they kick into high gear now.

Rescuers start attempting to get the little girl's heart to start again. They pound on her chest, breath into her lungs, shock her, and pound some more. The other girl, the little girl's sister, John presumes, is screaming frantically.

"MEADOW!" she wails struggling against the arms that hold her. "MEADOW! LET ME GO! SHE NEEDS ME!"

The rescuers sit back on their heels, they looks at each other and shake their heads. The older girl screams.

John tilts his head up to the sky. For the first time in four years he prays.

Please, he thinks, please save this one.

The silence is deafening.

He tilts his head back down to look at the girl. To his surprise his wife is standing next to her.

Mary meets his eyes, she smiles.

The hand, clutching the rosary, twitches.

The little girl's eyes snap open and she takes a huge breath.

It seems that then, the silence is broken. Sound assaults John's ears. The sounds of police sirens, people cheering. The little girl gasps out "Michelle!" and her sister bites the arm of the police officer holding her back. He releases her with a shout of pain and she rushes over to her sister. The young girl kneels down next to her sister and runs a hand over her head in an almost parental caress. Tears are streaming down her face but at the same time she's smiling. John watches as the rescue workers load both girls into an ambulance and speed them away. People are smiling, laughing, cheering, everyone is happy that the little girl has lived. John especially.

...

When John gets back to the motel Dean and Sammy are sleeping on the couch. Dean has his arms wrapped around Sammy, who had his head on Dean's chest and his thumb in his mouth. John smiles gently as he picks them both up, one in each arm. He carries them over to the bed and settles them dently down, tucking them under the covers. He kisses the top of Sammy's head and smoothes his hair away from his face. His kisses his cheek, his nose and his forehead. Than he moves over to Dean. He brushes his hand through Dean's short hair and kisses his forehead.

"I love you Dean," he whispers quietly, surprised when Dean softly whispers "I love you too."

John lays down on his bed and closes his eyes. He thinks of the little girl, grinning at him from her booster seat. He smiles a little, thinking of his two boys and how lucky his is, and (if just for a night) John has faith in the world again.

Even years later a young Meadow would tell almost everyone she met of the dark haired man and his beautiful angel wife, how they saved her life. Every Time her sister Michelle heard the story she would smile, always believing, for she had seen them too.


End file.
